Last year’s season which finished one win shy of a Florida State program record is officially history. It’s time for a new team to write their story. And it starts at home tonight against George Washington (1-0).
The Seminoles and the Colonials met last season ( a 67-48 FSU win), but now the rosters look much different. The ‘Noles lost two players to the NBA in Dwayne Bacon and Jonathan Isaac, and another (Xavier Rathan-Mayes) to the G-League. George Washington, for their part, lost Tyler Cavanaugh to the Atlanta Hawks, and the best player on their current team (Yuta Watanabe) sat out last year’s contest with an injury.
2nd year head coach Maurice Joseph referred to Cavanaugh as “Batman,” and the guy he called “Robin” was Watanabe, a 6-9 wing dubbed “The Chosen One”. Watanabe was on the A-10 All-Defensive Team last year and got off to a great start this season with a 19 point, 11 rebound, 7 block performance in their season-opening win over Howard.
Sophomore point guard Jair Bolden is expected to take on a major role this year, and he got off to a good start with 17 points in the opener. Grad transfers Patrick Steeves (Harvard), and Bo Zeigler (South Florida) each added 16.
The ’Noles will look to get their running game going against the Colonials, even though FSU is expected to be short handed (Trent Forrest is a game time decision with a bone bruise). GW played just seven men in their opener, with Watanabe going all 40 minutes.
The game tips at 7 PM from the Tuck and will be broadcast on regional sports networks.
FSU opened as a 14.5 point favorite. The line has moved to 16.5 with the over/under set at 152 total points.